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Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's a pic of the earrings : I am not good at describing things so I think it might help if you can see what the earrings look like. :)
“Good Morning, Mr. Carter.” Max greeted me with a smile when I approached him.

“How is she?” I asked while looking at the old lady standing in front of the antique store.

“Nothing’s changed.” He answered with a shrug “But I got the information you need.”

I went here the other day, two days after I met Max and the old lady, to start helping them both. But the old lady ignored us all day, and didn’t answer any of our questions. She kept pointing to the store and whispering the word ‘earrings’. I asked Max if he could gather any information that would help us know what the problem of the old lady was.

“Her name is Debbie Jenkins, Sixty-three years old, and I think she is looking for the earrings that her grandmother passed on to her mother and then to her.”

I looked at him wondering how he got all those information, and he smiled.

“I followed her when she visited her daughter’s house last night, and I heard her talking to her daughter. She promised her that she would get the earrings back.” He explained proudly

“You think the antique store have those earrings?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” He grinned and started walking towards the antique store.

Max told the old lady we were coming in when we passed by, but there was no reaction from her.

“Shit,” I hissed when I bumped into the antique store’s door. I followed Max and forgot that I couldn’t go through walls. Damn.

“Good Morning. How may I help you?” The man behind the counter greeted cheerfully.

“Good Morning,” I smiled nervously while trying to think what to say next. I should have made a plan first before entering the store. “I… I… I’m looking for the earrings that used to belong to Debbie Jenkins. I believe it was sold here, probably three years ago, and I am here to buy it.”

“She’s a family friend.” I quickly added when the man looked at me as if I had two heads or something.

“These are all the earrings we have.” The man pointed to the earrings that were being displayed on one corner of the shop.

I nodded and pretended to look at them while waiting for Max to finish checking if Debbie’s earrings were one of them. After a couple of minutes, Max shook his head with disappointment.

“Are you sure?” I whispered in the softest way possible.

“Yes.” He answered with confidence.

“Did you find what you are looking for?” The man asked me when he got back from attending to one customer.

“I’m afraid not. Do you have any more inventories?”
He shook his head “Maybe it was already sold.”

“Um, Mister…..”

“Clark. My name is Ronald Clark.” He supplied the information with a small smile.

“Ronald,” I said while nodding and extended my right hand to him “I’m Nick Carter. Is there a way to know if the earrings were really sold here by any of Debbie’s relatives? Maybe I’m looking at the wrong antique store, you know.”

“Oh my God! Nick Carter?” A young woman, probably on her early twenties, came in from the back door of the store.

“You know him?” Ronald was a bit surprised

“Of course, Dad. He is Nick Carter of THE Backstreet Boys.” Then she turned to me “What are you doing here? How can I help you?”

I gave her one of my thousand watts smile while telling her what the problem was.

“Oh, we actually have pictures of everything that became part of our inventory. I call it ‘The Book’, I can help you look for the earrings there, and if we’re lucky the information about the buyer would be there.”

“Really? Thank you!” I gave her a seductive smile. Being a Backstreet Boy sure comes handy sometimes. I remember when Brian said that the most effective pick-up line was to tell the girl you are a Backstreet Boy, and now I believe him.

After almost two hours of scanning three record books, we found nothing. I was starting to lose hope while Max was outside trying to convince the old lady to speak up.

“What kind of earrings are you looking for again?” The girl, whose name was Carol, asked me after a minute of silence.

“Um,” I looked around and was relieved to see Max behind me “You’re asking what the earrings look like?” I had to make sure Max heard the question.

“Yes.”

“Well….”

“They are gold and have big blue-ish oval gem.” Max whispered to me as if Carol could hear him. “I saw Debbie wearing them on one of her pictures.”

I repeated what Max told me “I’m sorry. I’m not good at describing jewelry.” I added.

“Wait. Who sold the earrings to us again?” Her facial expression reminded me of those cartoon characters, where a light bulb suddenly flashed above their heads when they remembered something.

“The owner of the earrings is Debbie Jenkins, but I’m sure it was not her who sold the earrings.”

“Now I remember, you must be looking for the earrings with gorgeous aquamarine oval gem. It was sold here by an old man three years ago at a very low price because he said he needed the money to get his wife out of the hospital.”

“Then why are they not on our inventory list?” Ronald butted in when he heard what Carol said

“Well, Uncle Joseph was here and fell in love with the earrings right away. He said it was the perfect anniversary gift for Kate. He bought it with his own money.” Carol explained and then turned to me “I am not sure, though, if those were the one you are looking for.”

“The old man actually came back after two weeks, he wanted to buy those earrings back but Uncle Joseph was in Texas. I told him to come back after a week but he never did.” Carol added.

“Is it possible to talk to your Uncle Joseph? Maybe he still have those earrings.”

“Uncle Joseph moved to Texas when Kate broke up with him. I am not sure if Kate returned those earrings to him when they broke up. You can try asking Kate, she owns a bakeshop three blocks from here. If she tells you that she returned those to Uncle Joseph, then come back here and I’d help you call Uncle Joseph.”

“That’s great. You’ve been really helpful.” I kissed her cheeks and hugged her tight which made her blush.

“What’s the name of your Uncle’s ex-girlfriend again?”

“Kate. Kaitlyn Harris.”
Chapter End Notes:
Thank you for reading! :)